Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Coffee Cake

An oatmeal raisin cookie sounds like a simple thing – and it can be, judging by the number of totally mediocre oatmeal raisin cookies that are out there – but when you get a good one, it can be heavenly. It will have just the right amount of cinnamon to set off the buttery notes in the nutty, oatmeal-packed dough, and highlight plump, sweet raisins. They are all great flavors, and there is no reason why they should only come together in cookie form. This is what inspired this Oatmeal Raisin Coffee Cake.

This cake is delicious, and perhaps doubly so for fans of oatmeal raisin cookies! It is sweet and buttery, with great flavor from brown sugar, oatmeal, cinnamon and raisins. Unlike a cookie, this cake isn’t chewy. It is moist and tender, with just enough richness to make it just as suitable for dessert as it is for breakfast or tea.

The cake is a simple buttermilk cake with oatmeal added to the batter. I prefer quick cooking oats (not instant) because of their not-too-big size and finer texture, and you can make them by pulsing regular rolled oats in the food processor a few times if you don’t have them. The filling and topping for this coffee cake are made with the same mixture, but raisins and chopped pecans are added to the filling of the cake. The topping will melt a bit into the cake itself as it bakes, but this just distributes all its brown sugar, cinnamonÂ and butter goodness over the entire cake.

Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, quick cooking oatmeal, baking powder and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half of the buttermilk and the vanilla. Then, blend in add half of the remaining flour, the rest of the buttermilk, and finally the last of the flour. Set aside to prepare topping.

For the topping, combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl and stir well. Rub butter into the mixture with your fingertips (or by pulsing a a food processor) until mixture resembles coarse sand.

Pour half of the batter into a 9-inch springform pan. Top with half of the topping mixture. Evenly sprinkle raisins and pecans in a single layer. Pour remaining batter on top and spread carefully to the sides of the pan. Sprinkle all remaining topping over the batter.
Bake in a 9-inch round springform pan

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool on a wire rack until it is room temperature before running a knife around the edge and removing the springform. Store in an airtight container.

(On a side note: I couldn’t find an email, but this is the third time I’ve visited your site and spyware has found its way on to my laptop as I visit the main page. Not really sure what can be done about this, but there may be some kind of a problem. I’ve got rid of it, but it’s the third time it’s happened… I can’t resist coming back though!!)

[…] Ok, say â€œOatmeal Raisin Cookie Coffee Cakeâ€ 3 times!! Even though itâ€™s not quite a tongue twister I just wish thereâ€™s a shorter name for this. I have been a bit preoccupied lately with different things going on so I havenâ€™t had a time nor the desire to make new food. However, I saw that my sister-in-law made this delicious looking cake on her Facebook and I decided to make one too. I didnâ€™t have any afternoon snack food for my children so I thought this would be perfect. Also, my husband loves oatmeal raisin cookies, so I wanted to see what he thought about this cake. The recipe came from here. […]